Felled
by hghrules
Summary: (PHAN) felled. verb. "knocked down." Dan has spent the past too many years of his life wishing for an escape. Phil has spent the past too many years of his life wishing for a different kind of escape. The boys find themselves on top of Mt. Ebbot (albeit for different reasons) and have a tad bit* of trouble getting down. *They fall into a different world.
1. PART I: RUINS

_"Deep breaths, Daniel. It'll be better soon."_

 _"No!"_

 _"..?"_

 _"You should really be more careful!" Bright laughter sounds through the air, carried along by the breeze. "'S a good thing I was here, or else you would've fallen. Maybe you shouldn't stand so close to the edge?"_

 _"... I-"_

 _"Oh, god. Maybe we should get away from here. The ground seems a little unsturdaHHHH!"_

 _ **Thump.**_

 _All is silent._


	2. 1: MEET THE BOYS (and a flower)

**Part I - Chapter One**

 **MEET THE BOYS**

* * *

"Yeesh," mumbles one boy, blinking himself awake as he pushes himself up with his hands. "Where am I?"

The other boy is silent, frozen, eyes glued to the ceiling as he lies hopelessly on his back. "I... was supposed to feel better."

"Feel better?" asks the first boy. He sits up straight, crossing his legs criss-cross applesauce. "Criss-cross applesauce," he whispers. After doing so, he uncrosses his legs and then crosses them once more, presumably just so he has an excuse to say the words 'criss-cross applesauce' again. "I think I actually feel pretty great, having fallen into a mountain and all!"

"Oh," says the second boy. He takes a deep breath, pushes the brown fringe out of his eyes, and sits up slowly. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Where do you think we are?" the first boy asks. "Hey, and what's your name?"

"Um... I don't know, and, Dan?" the second boy says slowly. He is, admittedly, having a bit of trouble keeping up with the first boy's pace. "Uh, what's yours? Name, that is."

"Oh, I'm Phil!" Phil replies, grinning as he stands up and then reaches down to offer Dan a hand.

Dan thinks to himself that if Phil smiles at him like that any longer, he might just end up with a sunburn. Or perhaps just a lovely tan.

"Thanks," Dan says after too long a while, and Phil grasps his hand and pulls him to his feet. "Pretty convenient," Dan says when Phil fails to say anything at all, "that we managed to land on a bunch of flowers."

"Yeah, really!" Phil laughs before Dan even has time to _think_ about feeling awkward. "Do you think we could climb back up?"

Dan doesn't know if he _wants_ to climb back up, and, fortunately for him, he doesn't think he _can,_ either. "Looks pretty steep. Sorry, mate, but I don't think we'll be getting back up the way we came."

"Then we press forward!" Phil shouts. He links his elbow with Dan's without even the slightest bit of a warning, and Dan doesn't have time to think of a reason why he ought to be pulling away before Phil tugs him forward.

"Gonna go out on a limb here and say that _isn't_ natural," Dan snorts when he sees the tall door. It's made of purplish stone, and Dan forgets to think about the implications. Perhaps he _is_ dead. Perhaps the feelings just take a bit of time to fade away, and then he'll get that void he was searching for.

Dan wonders if Phil is dead, too. The thought bothers him - or perhaps it makes him happy?

He doesn't know, so he brushes that train of thought aside.

"That's ominous as hell," Dan says, almost automatically, when he snaps back into the real world.

"I don't trust that at all," Phil whispers to him.

"Maybe we should-"

"It's got a smiley face," Phil says, as though that fixes everything. Dan wonders if, somehow, it does.

"Howdy!" says the smiling, apparently _talking_ flower in front of them.

Dan gives an awkward two-finger wave which he almost immediately regrets.

"I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower! You're new to the underground, aren'tcha?"

"Hmm," Dan says suspiciously.

"Hmm?" Phil echoes, confused.

"Golly, you must be so confused!"

"You've no idea," Dan whispers.

Perhaps Dan zones out a bit, because when he opens his eyes, the world around him is blurred out, and only Phil and Flowey the Fricking Flower stand clear in front of him. There seems to be a black sort of backdrop(?) around them all, and there are two floating hearts - one a fragile, innocent, pink-ish red, the other a deep, hardened maroon - floating absently between Flowey and the boys.

"This is deep," Dan comments fearlessly. He is ninety percent certain he is dead.

"Is it?" Phil asks, wincing slightly as the flower grins at them.

"See these hearts? These are your SOULS - the very culminations of your beings!

"And I'm... moving it around a box," Dan comments, squinting slightly. He takes a step closer to Phil and raises his eyebrows when his SOUL does the same.

"They start off weak, but you can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV! Which is _LOVE,_ of course!"

"Wow," Phil mutters.

"You want some LOVE, don'tcha?"

"We just met," Dan replies automatically. The flower doesn't flinch. Phil wrinkles his nose.

"Don't worry, I'll share some with you," Flowey says, winking as, perhaps, a bit of an afterthought. Dan wonders if he ought to ask for winking lessons. He winks back, a silent prayer to the universe to tell him whether or not he should ask.

"Grab all the friendliness pellets!" Flowey shouts happily, and Dan takes it as a "no" when Phil steps up to grab the pellets and then immediately gets thrown back down onto the ground. His SOUL withers in its place. "You _idiot!"_ Flowey roars. Dan fights the urge to run to Phil and help him up. "In this world, it's _kill or be killed!"_

Suddenly, the flower is knocked away, and a tall white-furred lady-goat wearing a purple dress appears in its place. The SOULS disappear along with the black backdrop and the nauseating blur.

"Make-up on point," is all Dan can say as the goat thing kneels down in front of Phil, who is looking very in pain as he sits haphazardly on the ground.

"Here, my child. I am Toriel, and I will heal your wounds and protect you," says the goat lady.

"Thanks!" Phil laughs, standing up straight. "Are you a goat? 'Cause of your, your little horns!"

"Yes," Toriel the goat lady chuckles, and Dan is _quite_ sure he's dead. "Follow me, my dears." She walks out of the room.

"Nice dress," Phil comments before following her.

"Classy dress," Dan agrees. He thinks he deserves a shock blanket.

Phil's eyes go wide when they pass through the next arch. The music that begins playing sounds like something out of a retro, pixelated video game, but neither boy is complaining. Well - perhaps Dan is complaining, internally, just a little bit, because he can't seem to find where the music is coming from and that's kind of messing him up a bit - but, really, neither boy complains.

"What is _that?"_ Phil asks in awe, pointing at a sparkling yellow star-like thing in the middle of the room.

"Shuriken," offers Dan. Phil tilts his head like maybe he isn't sure about that answer, but he walks up to the shuriken thing anyways.

"Can we collect it?" Phil asks.

"Maybe- Oh my god," Dan breathes as he reaches out a hand. His hand goes straight through the starry shuriken, and, for a short moment, his whole body feels fuzzy and warm. Then the feeling fades, and he is left wishing for an excuse to touch it again.

"Huh," says Phil. "That was... nice."

"You could call it that," says Dan, and then he shrugs and hurries up the stone stairs after Toriel.

"Pink is a pretty color," Phil calls after him, jogging to catch up, and Dan looks down at his feet as he walks. "I think your soul suits you."

"Red isn't a bad color at all," Dan offers quietly in return, chancing a look up at Phil, who is beaming at the just-barely-a-compliment. "Red is nice. Like you. I suppose it fits."

Phil smiles a bit more tamely this time, and Dan wonders if that means it's more genuine or more sad. Regardless, when Phil says, "Yes, I suppose it does," and links arms with Dan once more, Dan does not for a single second consider pulling away.


End file.
